Learning Objectives

Following the completion of this chapter, students will be able to:

1. Define coping and explain why it is important to mental health.
2. Identify and describe environmental models of coping.
3. Describe coping mechanisms identified by behavioral models.
4. List and describe the adaptive mechanisms associated with the psychoanalytic coping-style models.
5. Describe strategies of coping characterized by cognitive-appraisal models.
6. Describe the basic assumptions of normative models of successful aging.
7. Compare and contrast the balance models of successful aging.
8. Discuss the differences between theorists' and laypeople's perceptions about successful aging.
9. Define substance abuse and substance dependence; discuss cohort effects and specific substances people abuse and upon which they become dependent.
10. Describe the nature and prevalence of partner abuse; identify characteristics of abusers and victims.
11. Define and describe the causes of child abuse and neglect.
12. Describe the nature and prevalence of elder abuse across cultures.
13. List and describe correlates of mental health and life satisfaction.
14. List and explain the characteristics of mental disorders in aging adults.
15. Discuss the implications of Kivnick's study of the life strengths of older adults.